Local quartz favourite VICOSTONE awarded at Vietnam Value Programme

VICOSTONE has become a national quartz brand

With the trend of utilising quartz-based items in interior decoration, VICOSTONE has been one of the leading choices for architects and people who love home decoration. Contributing to its popularity is the Breton technology producing artificial quartz stones by a patented process. VICOSTONE is the first Vietnamese company that has been transferred the technology and runs six synchronous Breton production lines in Vietnam.

With the support of the parent company Phenikaa Group and its own solid foundations, over the years, VICOSTONE has grown sharply and sustainably in sales, profit, and human resources. In this third quarter, the company reached about VND1.505 trillion ($65.43 million) in net sales, up 2.2 per cent on-year, as well as VND469 billion ($20.4 million) in pre-tax profit, up 13 per cent on-year. The positive results reflected its sustainable performance during the health crisis.

VICOSTONE is also one of the three leading global quartz manufacturers, with 10,000 dealers across 40 countries, including strict markets such as the US, Canada, Australia, and European countries.

Along with business, the company has also shown keen interest in social and community development as the origin of sustainable growth. Over the past time, VICOSTONE has sponsored finance, healthcare, and education for disadvantage children while also taking care of its employees. COVID-19 has forced many businesses to cut staff members, salaries, or bonus payments.

However, going against the grain, VICOSTONE has maintained employment without changing their income. Even more, this year, VICOSTONE recruited 92 additional staff members, up 45 per cent on-year.

Annually, the company spends dozens of billions of VND on environmental protection and meteorological disaster prevention programmes.

Local quartz favourite VICOSTONE awarded at Vietnam Value Programme (source: vicostone.com)

2020, the first time the Vietnam Value Programme has been implemented according to Decision No.30/2019/QD-TTg dated October 8, 2019 on promulgating regulations on building, managing, and implementing the Vietnam National Brand Programme.

Mr. Vu Ba Phu, General Director of Trade Promotion Department, Ministry of Industry and Trade, said that after 17 years of implementing the program of voting national brands of seven brands, we have witnessed the continuous growth of many domestic enterprises.

By 2018, this had grown to 97, and this year we have registered 124 businesses and their brands.

However, the growth of the business community is not only in the number of enterprises participating, but also in exports, sales, contributions to the state budget, as well as their efforts in social responsibility. and job creation.

At the first selection in 2008, we saw only 30 selected companies with their products. By 2018, this had grown to 97, and this year we have registered 124 businesses and their brands.

However, the growth of the business community is not only in the number of enterprises participating, but also in exports, sales, contributions to the state budget, as well as their efforts in social responsibility. and job creation.

For example, the national brand recognized enterprise in 2018 achieved revenue of about 907 trillion VND (39.4 billion USD), export turnover reached 130 trillion VND (5.6 billion USD), contributing 85 trillion VND (3.7 billion USD) to the state budget and created 340,000 jobs.

Meanwhile, this year, those figures have increased to 975 trillion dong (42.4 billion USD) and 123 trillion dong (5.34 billion USD) by 2020, with the amount contributed to the bank. State books amounted to 179 trillion VND (8.5 billion USD) and 350,000 new jobs were created - all despite the pandemic.

Vu Ba Phu also said that, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has supported businesses in difficulty. After the first months of the health crisis, the domestic market was redefined.

Right from the beginning of the year, following the direction of the Government, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has worked with ministries, branches and localities to implement supply-demand activities across the country to remove difficulties for businesses in production. and distribution.

In addition, to support businesses with high quality brands, we have also been integrating selected brands into national promotions such as the Clean Food Program to vote Vietnamese products for local people.

The integration of such programs has helped grow the domestic market since the beginning of the year, despite the economic consequences of the pandemic. This shows that the communication, promotion and support efforts of the Ministry of Industry and Trade and its agencies so far have been effective.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade also published Circular No.33/2019/TT-BCT regulating the criteria system which, among others, states that the intellectual property of companies participating in the programme must be protected and that all registering enterprises must be the owner thereof.

Dr. Le Ngoc Lam, former deputy director general of the National Office of Intellectual Property under the Ministry of Science and Technology, said, this year, most of the registered enterprises had been aware of the importance of intellectual property rights (IPRs).

The programme requires businesses and their products to meet certain criteria concerning quality, innovation, and creativity. However, the appraisal process of participating enterprises shows that many of them have confused the programme with pure awards for their brands.

As companies register for the programme, they must make certain investments to achieve the requirements, which are meant to prove consistency with their development.

Saying so does not mean that enterprises can rely on their brands and that the quality of their products is guaranteed forever, which is the reason why the programme is run every two years, with some of its processes and criteria changing and adapting to recent developments.

Lam said, enterprises need to be aware of this, as branding and maintaining one’s brand names is a challenge.